Chapter 305

I leaned against the wall near the mouth of the cave we were hiding in and looked out. Even now, there were still clouds of the banshee demons swirling around and queuing up to leave the dungeon entrance. Traehall would have been completely overwhelmed if the number of banshees this place was releasing could all leave the dungeon at once. The stairs were limiting how many could leave at a time.

Turning my attention away from the direction we came, I looked over to the myriad islands sitting atop the pillars in the distance. There were no bridges or obvious ways across, which led me to believe the only way we would make it to a new island was by flying there.

I squinted at one of the pillars in the distance. "Torien, Lori, come here a moment."

"What do you need?" Torien asked. She walked over to me with Lori following a step behind her.

I pointed at the island I was looking at. "Do you think we're going to have to fly to get to the next pillar?"

Torien grimaced. "I'm not sure... Normally, crossing the bounds of the dungeon would trigger a dungeon break, but this dungeon looks to be in one perpetually."

Lori rubbed her chin. "You know, sometimes dungeons require particular skills to progress in them. It's something that usually requires some trial and error, but it's not impossible that this dungeon requires flight to complete it in the first place. If that's the case, flying to the next pillar may be the intended way to complete this dungeon, especially since this one clearly favors flying monsters."

"If we're wrong, will the dungeon break get worse?" I asked.

Lori shook her head. "Doubtful. There are already thousands of them in the air."

Torien leaned close to the illusion that Raya had created at the mouth of the cave to try and get a better look at the surroundings. "If we use the new flight spell you received, it won't work well with Raya's illusions."

I nodded. "Raya said that light magic makes her illusions harder or impossible to maintain."

"Right, we would be flying between the two pillars completely exposed and visible to that entire crowd of demons in the air." Torien pulled away from the edge of the barrier. "If we decide to do that, we should at least get as far away from them as we can, which means circling the cliffs on this island if nothing else."

Lori nodded. "I think that's a good idea. We may be able to slip by without being noticed since they are focused on the entrance, and even if they do come for us, we'll have a little bit of extra time that way."

"It'll be difficult to cast the spell on so many people. Some of us can maintain the spell with mana, but not all of us have a lot of that," I said.

Torien blushed and looked away. "You and Bella could use your true forms..."

"I'd have to take off my armor... though, wait... I gained another new spell. Could I use [Arms of Light] to replace my armor?"

I pulled up the description of the spell again.

[Arms of Light - Light Magic Spell]Create glowing hard-light constructs in the form of weapons or armor. Weapons created using this spell do additional magic damage to targets. The physical durability of these constructs are affected by Magic Force, and the duration of their existence is affected by Magic Control. Weapons or armor created in this way can be reinforced with mana to repair any damage or increase their duration. They may also be upkept with mana to extend their existence for as long as sufficient mana is supplied to them. The constructs created in this way can be partially incorporeal to allow for improving existing weapons and armor, but the strength of the construct is lessened if used in this way. Weapons and armor created using this skill do increased damage and have increased durability against shadow and dark-aligned enemies.

"It looks like that plan might work, but I would need to test these two spells out, and I'm not sure how durable the armor from this spell will be. I'm not sure what its upkeep cost will be compared to the cloaks as well. It might be cheaper to just use the cloak spell on myself and remain in my normal form anyway," I said.

"Let's go talk with the others about this plan," Torien said.

The two of us followed her over and I cleared my throat to get everyone's attention. "Hey everyone, we were talking and I think our best course of action would be to cross the gap between the pillars using my new [Winged Cloak of Light] spell after circling around to the other side of this island."

"The flight spell?" Morrigan asked before looking over our group. "Would you be able to cast it on everyone?"

I shrugged. "Even if the initial cast is expensive, we could wait out my regeneration or use mana potions to offset the cost. The real problem will be maintaining the spell on everyone, I think. Bella and I could use our true forms, but I would also want to cast [Arms of Light] on myself, which would also require an upkeep cost. I haven't tested either spell yet though, so I don't know how expensive they would be to cast or maintain."

Bella blushed. "I would have to use my true form? ...I suppose it would be nice to fly."

Morrigan leaned back against the wall behind her. "I need to see if I can maintain the upkeep with ambient mana. I don't think my small mana pool would be able to support a spell like that, even if it has grown since I received that new karma ability."

Raya looked hesitant. "Are you sure this is a good idea? If the cloak glows like all of your other light magic, I don't think my illusions could hide us. I got a new one that could veil us while moving, but it's fragile, and glowing magic would probably break it."

Lori nodded. "We were thinking about circling to the other side of this pillar to get as far away from the entrance as possible before we attempt to cross. The demons may not notice us with their attention on the entrance, and if they do, they'll still have to fly over to us."

Silva grunted. "I've always wanted to try flying magic, but we'll need some time to get used to it first. Our first flight shouldn't be to cross. We'll need some practice."

I sighed and nodded. "You're right. It would be best to deal with this dungeon as quickly as possible, but trying to cross the gap right away would be an unnecessary risk."

Morrigan started to look around. "Who would most likely need help maintaining the spell?" She started counting on one hand. "Torien, Sibyl, Kal'daeryn, Aunt Lori, and maybe me. Everyone else should have enough mana to maintain it, right?"

Silva nodded. "It depends on how much mana it costs, but everyone else should have enough mana to cover it. What about Mimi?" she asked, turning to the mimic.

Mimi shrugged. "I'll just turn into a choker and get a ride with Lilith like last time. I think my body would interfere with the spell too much."

Raya glanced at the entrance. "It sounds like we should try this spell out first, but I'm using a pretty basic illusion at the cave entrance. We should go somewhere else before we cast it."

Lori pointed behind her with her thumb. "Those demons are pretty single-minded. I don't think they'll notice us if we go around the other side of this cliff."

Raya suddenly perked up, looking excited. "I can use my new camouflage spell on all of us! We'll have to get pretty close together while we move since the cost scales with area, but the surroundings have enough tree cover, so it should work well."

"Is everyone rested enough to relocate?" I asked.

Nelly sighed as she sat up. "I suppose I'm ready. Let's just avoid getting into another fight so soon. I don't want to repeat that run we just had."

Kal'daeryn smiled and leaned her shoulder against Nelly. "Maybe we should start some morning runs soon. We should get your body better conditioned if we're going to be facing dungeons."

Nelly frowned at the thought, but leaned back into the tigerkin all the same. "Maybe..."

Everyone stood up and gathered near the mouth of the cave. Raya took a deep breath before casting the new spell. This one wasn't as powerful as her previous illusions had been, but its ability to move with us made up for that.

"Depending on how far we go, I may need a mana potion to maintain the effect. As long as we stick close though, the mana cost isn't too bad," Raya said.

I nodded. "Let's get moving then."

All of us left the cave and held onto each other's shoulders to move in relative unison. The camouflage spell removed our presence and subtly bent the light around us. Up close it would be pretty visible to onlookers as a weird distortion, but from a distance away, we would be nearly imperceptible. It reminded me of some science fiction movies that had similar visual effects.

We walked for a few minutes while keeping our eyes trained on the sky. So far, none of the banshees had noticed us. There were definitely some that were pointed in our direction, but the camouflage spell seemed to work really well for this purpose. Raya's eyes were squinted in concentration, but seemed otherwise fine maintaining the spell as we quietly walked through the trees. Almost a bell of walking later, we had gotten far enough around the side of the cliff that we couldn't see the giant mass of flying demons off in the distance anymore.

"Do you think it's safe to drop the spell here?" Raya asked.

"I think so, I can't see any of them from here, so they shouldn't see us," Torien said.

Raya let go of the spell and leaned against Sibyl. "Maintaining the spell for that long was tiring."

"Do you still have mana left?" I asked.

She nodded. "I do, but you should try that spell with the others first. Give me a little while."

I looked around. "Who wants to go first?"

Morrigan raised her hand. "Let me try first. I'd like to know if I can maintain the spell with ambient mana. I should be able to find out pretty quickly."

I nodded and put my hand on her shoulder to make casting it a bit easier. "Here we go, [Winged Cloak of Light]."

The spell activated and the light magic materialized around her shoulders. It appeared as a hooded cloak with long bat-like wings spreading out behind her. Each wing was about twice her height in length, but neatly folded behind her without touching the ground. The initial mana cost wasn't too bad, but the mana draw to maintain the wings would be challenging to deal with for long periods of time. Maintaining two casts of the spell would outstrip all of my mana regeneration, but keeping all four of them up, plus maybe Morrigan, would be doable for a while. I would need to drink mana potions if the flight went on too long, though.

Morrigan looked behind her while opening and closing the wings a few times. She stretched them out to their maximum wingspan before pulling them back and neatly folding the wings behind her. "They feel oddly natural. I thought they would take more effort to control."

"I can feel the draw on my mana. Are you able to keep them charged up with ambient mana?" I asked.

Morrigan tilted her head as she concentrated. I watched as she drew some of the nearby ambient mana into herself and let it flow into her wings. I felt the upkeep cost disappear as Morrigan took over the cost by continually absorbing the nearby mana.

She nodded. "I think I'll be able to maintain this on myself without much trouble, but it requires significant concentration. It would be harder to do this in a night dungeon, but this one thankfully has enough loose light mana to make it easier on me."

I smiled. "Alright! Let's start with the people who can maintain the spell first, and let them practice with the wings while I see about shifting into my true form and using my other spell."

I cast the spell on Silva, Nelly, and Raya and pulled Mimi over to the side. "Alright, Mimi, I need you to hold onto my armor for me. I'm going to have to get naked to shift into my true form."

She nodded and placed her hand on my breastplate before sucking it up with the rest of my clothes. I rolled my shoulder, feeling a bit odd to be standing nude in the woods in a dungeon, but I didn't feel all that shy. Everyone here had seen me naked before, and gone even farther than that. I took a breath and shifted into my true form. I gained in height while my wings and succubus tail grew out behind me. I let out a sharp gasp as my wings tingled in pleasure from the wind blowing against them. It took me a minute to adapt to the changes again before I was finally able to cast my new spell.

"[Arms of Light]" The experience of casting the spell was a bit interesting. As soon as the spell began to cast, I felt the need to visualize what I wanted from it. I mentally pictured a breastplate, and before I could even put the thought into words, a set of glowing armor began to cover me. The armor wrapped around the base of my wings and tail, leaving them exposed, but gave them perfect range of movement. With a few thoughts, I was able to adjust the armor to better suit my nude form and cover me in places my original mental picture hadn't. Armor flowed down my legs to form greaves I hadn't ever worn before, and the armor began to trail up my arms to form gauntlets as well. The armor unfortunately still had weight to it, but my true form felt stronger anyway, so it wasn't an issue.

The initial cost of the armor was much larger than the cloak, but the upkeep was so minimal that I would have to consider wearing this armor all the time in place of my old set. It was always glowing, which was a bit annoying, but with its ability to change shape as quickly and fluidly as it did, I could potentially wear it under my clothes until it was needed. It did eat mana when I changed its shape and created more of the armor, but it wasn't as bad as the initial mana cost, depending on how much more 'material' I added. Once I was finished, I ended up with a suit of armor that was a lot more impressive looking than my prior breastplate. The light construct was also much more comfortable and even more form-fitting than my old armor had been.

"I can work with this," I said with a devilish grin.