Friends is an overstatement

The next day we manage to rise early and after breakfast we ride to the ferry. It takes only about 2 hours. Once there, Merlara negotiates out trip across the river. While attacks from bandits or monsters are always possible, we didn’t have any our entire trip. And another 2 days later, we arrive at our destination.

From the moment we approach the village, people in the farm fields start staring at us from afar. I notice some run off, probably to tell others about our arrival. As we are about to enter the village proper, we get approached by 4 people. 3 of them on the mature side and one of them rather old. They introduce themselves as the local adventurers, protecting this village after their retirement from adventuring. After showing them the letter sent by the owner of the mine and showing our Dark Dragon necklaces, they guide us to the leader of this settlement.

I have never been to a mining village before, but it looks quite similar to other villages. There are farms at the outskirts, an inn and stables near the market square. Lots of houses in the village center, also a church to the goddess Imris. There is no city hall though. Just a chateau. A mansion which looks like a castle, but doesn’t have any actual fortifications so it won’t last long in a real siege.

It turns out that the owner of the mine lives in this mansion and he welcomes us with great joy. He is a man who appears to be in his late 40’s and is definitely showing signs of ageing. He tells us that he has already prepared rooms for us and we are welcome to enjoy a feast in our honor at his table.

It is during this feast that he tells us a lot about the mine. Apparently, it is a place where they mostly find iron, occasionally some copper and at times even some mithril. A metal which is lighter than iron, but is also harder than steel. Simply fantasizing about full mithril plate armor make me realize the importance of this mine. We also receive a map of the mine itself and all its corridors, as well as a detailed explanation of each of the elementals we can expect to find there. There will be no air elementals, as those would require access to fresh air. The same for light elementals. Earth and darkness elementals will be common on the other hand. There is moisture in the mine, so water elementals can appear as well and there have been previous cases where even fire elementals appeared, as it can be quite warm in the lower levels.

As we are discussing the weaknesses of each elemental the oldest retired adventurer living here, a D rank mage, interrupts us by saying, “Elementals don’t normally attack people like this. There’s something in that mine I tell you. Something that’s making them attack us.”

“Pay him no mind.” One of his fellow adventurers replies. “He’s been saying that for years. Nobody ever found anybody controlling them, yet they still appear out of nowhere.”

I still find his words interesting. I have only ever seen Syvis and Darx control elementals. Could it be some rogue elementalist is hiding somewhere in the mine?

The next morning, we are given some food and torches before heading to the mine. We also receive some basic mana potions. So far, I’ve not needed any. But we’re going up against magical creatures this time. Even if they don’t replenish as much mana as the ones sold by the alchemist guild, it would be a good idea to have one or two, just in case. Merlara and I are each also given a war hammer. That’s for when we face earth elementals, they say.

The local adventurers walk us to the mine but stay outside. If by dusk we haven’t returned, they will come in and search for us. But only to either inform us how late it is, or to confirm that we have perished. With that, my party enters the mine.

As we were told, the first level didn’t have any elementals but Merlara still wants us to double check. The mission is to take out all elementals, after all. Once we are on the second level, Merlara asks Shalia to block the exit. That way any elementals on this level can no longer escape up. Next Merlara suggests we clear out the tunnels. She and I are up front, Shalia and Ryul behind us.

The first opponents we find are a few small earth elementals.

They are only as tall as dwarves and they are mostly made up of stone and sand. I can see how our swords would not do well against them. Merlara and I switch to the war hammers that were given to us and we beat their limbs off. Ryul takes care of any that move past us and try to get to Shalia, while Shalia uses her earth magic to give them the final blow.

After we finish cleaning out this floor, we move on to the third level. Shalia uses her earth magic to close off the passage to the second level and we start clearing out. The earth elementals we find here are a little taller, and we also find some darkness elementals.

They are slender and look oily and have tentacles for legs. I find them very disgusting. Fortunately, a single casting of my [Sunlight charge] leaves them debilitated enough that they can barely move and we can quickly dispatch them. When we reach the entrance to the 4th level, we finally come across an earth elemental as tall as us. He seems to be guarding the exit, together with two dark elementals. I tell Merlara to keep the earth elemental busy while I take care of the others. She uses her [Infuriate] skill to draw the earth elemental to her. I quickly run to one of the two dark elementals and use [Blind Thrust] to draw his attention onto me. Then I rush over to the other and cast [Divine Chains] to tie him to me as well. I position myself in a way where both of them are in front of me and cast [Sunlight Charge] again. This is when Ryul comes in and punches one so hard it disappears in a puff of smoke. I whack my hammer on the other’s head and he disappears as well.

When looking over to the earth elemental, I see that Shalia is using her earth magic to keep the elemental in place while Merlara works on him with her war hammer. I join in and a short time later he lies in unmoving pieces in front of us.

“Good job, everyone.” Merlara compliments us. She then places her foot on a large piece of the earth elemental and says, “Shalia, try using your earth magic to split this open.”

Shalia does it and splits the large chunk into three pieces. Merlara checks them out, but then sighs.

“I was hoping for a large one like this to hold some minerals, but it looks like this one was just pure rock.”

Before heading down to level 4, Merlara suggests we take a break. It would do well for the casters among us to replenish some mana. I wouldn’t say that I am low on mana yet, but if the next level holds more dark elementals than this one has, I might run out before we finish that level. Shalia does decide to drink one of those mana potions. I guess a mage like her naturally spends more mana.

After a short rest and a light snack, we continue into level 4. Like usual, Shalia closes off the entrance to the previous level we start combing out this one. It was a good idea to rest. This level may have the same number of dark elementals, but they are stronger and are better capable of resisting my [Sunlight Charge]. This level also has a few small water elementals. I figured it would have been easy with Shalia having water magic. But she can only restrain one elemental at a time.

Then I see Merlara aim her right hand towards one of these small water elementals and suddenly it freezes. Wait. She can cast ice magic? When?! How?! She’s a spellsword! She is not supposed to be able to do that!

After the fight, when Shalia is cracking open the earth elemental, I call out helmet girl. “Alright, Merlara. What gives?”

She cocks her head and responds with, “It is generally people who tend to give, not objects. So, your sentence should be ‘who’ gives.” Merlara responds.

Keep calm, Leona. Bucket face is just being a wise ass.

“You know what I mean.” I reply. “I’ve never seen you use ice magic before. But now you can suddenly do it?”

“Hey yeah.” Ryul says. “Aren’t you supposed to combine water and air for that?”

“And spellswords only have 1 magic element to play around with. So, ice magic is impossible for a spellsword like you.” I continue.

Merlara sneered and said, “Maybe I just gave him a really mean look. One that sent shivers down his spine and froze him solid.”

Oh, so she’s going to be like that, huh. Pfft, whatever. I’ll find out her secrets one day.

We continue clearing out this level of the mine and Shalia does manage find a decently sized clump of copper inside one of the earth elementals. Each of us tries to imagine just how many copper coins this can be melted into. Merlara says it’s better to sell it to the crafting guild in Riledo. That way we don’t need to melt and coin it ourselves. So, we put the copper ore in our backpack and continue on.

Eventually, we get to a big cave. This is apparently where the miners were digging when the elementals started attacking. We can see by the pickaxes lying around that the miners immediately dropped everything and just ran. I don’t blame them. We are mostly A ranks and even we have been having issues with these large earth elementals. Plus, we have magic to help us. The miners didn’t.

Here in this cave, we see the largest elementals so far. Two darkness and two water elementals. All four of them human sized. In their midst is a fifth, an earth elemental as tall as the tallest human I know with a body made entirely out of rocks. After a short discussion, we figure out a strategy and decide to take them on.

As we charge in, Shalia is the first to stop approaching and uses her magic hamper the movements of the water elementals closest to us. I head over to the two dark elementals and bind them with my [Divine chains]. Merlara continues to the other water elemental and freezes its legs. Ryul then uses his [Deadly Rush] skill and punches the water elemental’s frozen legs off. The water elemental can quickly reform its body, but due to half its body being trapped in ice it is only half as tall as before. That is when Merlara casts her freeze spell again and the second water elemental and it is completely frozen. Just in time too because the earth elemental is coming for them. That is when Merlara and Ryul rush to the first water elemental and give her the same treatment. Shalia instead switches to the earth elemental and tries to use her earth magic immobilize him, but the elemental seems to have more power over the element of earth than Shalia can project. Instead, she changes her tactic to casting a [Stone Wall] spell, which causes rocks from the floor to rise and form a wall, blocking the earth elemental’s approach.

In the meantime, I keep myself busy by fighting the dark elementals. I cast [Sunlight Charge] but it does little against them. I try to keep both in front of me, but they manage to flank me. This is bad. I now need to keep one at bay with my shield and the other with my sword. Actually, this makes me think back of when my mentor back home made me fight multiple fellow students at the same time. Yeah, I need to fight against these like I fought back then. I switch my style from defensive to offensive. I attack one dark elemental, then turn my back to him and attack the one on the other side, turn my back to that one and attack the first again. My adrenaline goes up and I speed up my attacks. I will exhaust myself quickly this way, but at least I keep the upper hand. When I find an opening, I use my [Battle Cry] skill. I scream loud and furiously. The elementals I’m fighting are surprised and hesitate. That is when I cut the shadowy arm off one of them. Now that I have one limb less to worry about, it gets quite a bit easier. The dark elemental can grow a new one, but it takes some time and he holds back while doing so. Now I can focus on one at a time. All I have to do is succeed is cut a piece of the other before the first one has grown his arm back. Eventually I manage to cut the head off one of them and poof, the rest of his body goes up in smoke. When I focus on the other again, I see Ryul charge him. He gets behind the elemental and grabs it in a headlock.

“Quick Leona. Get him.” Ryul tells me.

Without hesitating, I stab my sword in the dark elemental’s chest and this one goes poof as well.

“Thanks, Ryul. Let’s get back to the others.”

When I get back to Shalia I notice the 2nd water elemental is lying broken on the ground, frozen into pieces. That leaves just the large earth elemental, who by now has broken through Shalia’s wall. The elemental does have one of its feet trapped in a crevice. Shalia must have opened up the ground under the elemental to trap it. Good job. Now Shalia is using her [Briar Trap] spell to grow some lianas around its other foot. All the while, Merlara is keeping the elemental’s attention on her. Even with her opponent having both feet trapped it is quite difficult to avoid his blows, as he has two swords made of stone. I am sure a blow like that would seriously hurt, armor or not. Yet Merlara dodges all of them with such ease that it seems the weight of her armor doesn’t bother her.

I fear that if we just fight him with our hammers like this, it is going to take too long. We have to find a way to make this go faster. Then I get an idea. I run over to the earth elemental but keep my sword and hammer sheathed and also throw away my shield.

“Merlara, we got to pull him to the ground!” I yell at the dark knight.

Then I jump for one of the elemental’s arms and hang on to it. Unfortunately, the elemental notices me quickly and swings the stone sword in his other hand at me. I let go but also activate [Iron Will], just in case. Good thing too, because the rocky sword actually hits me. I fall on the ground, yet quickly roll further away from the elemental to keep my distance. When I try to get up, I feel pain where he hit me. Ufh, that is going to be a bruise. But thanks to a quick use of [Endure] I easily bite away the pain.

“What was that dumb thing about?!” Merlara yells at me.

“We need to get him on the ground!” I yell back. “Our armors are heavy. If we hang on his arms, we can get him off balance!”

I run back up to the earth elemental and grab his arm once more. I notice Merlara throwing aside her sword and shield as well and she jumps for the elemental’s other arm. With both of us hanging on his arms, he can no longer wield his swords. He also starts the lean backwards a bit. Just like I expected. Mine and Merlara’s weight is just too much. We also put our feet on his legs and pull even more. This is where my A rank strength really come useful.

“Now Ryul! Punch him in the face!” I yell.

Ryul gets in front of the elemental. By the way he stands, I notice he is in [Earth’s Stance]. A monk fighting stance that allows him to have greater speed and strength. I also see him prepare [Mantra] for even more speed and strength. Then he runs towards the elemental, jumps with his fist ready, and punches this elemental in its face. Ryul is lucky to have borrowed some plate gloves from the Dark Dragon armory. Otherwise, I am sure his fist would have been broken. The punch was hard enough to crack the earth elemental’s face and also pushes it past its geometric center. It starts slowly tipping further back. This is when Merlara and I keep clear from his back and guide him to the floor, where he hits it with a loud bang. This time, instead of pulling on his arms, we push on them, making certain he continues not being able to make use of them. I want to call out to Shalia to use her [Briar Trap] on the rocky arms, but Ryul suddenly sits on the elemental’s chest. He then uses his [Blind Fury] skill and start pounding the elemental’s face so fast that I can barely follow the movement of his fists. With every punch of his metal covered fists, he cracks the elemental’s face more. The small pieces breaking off become larger until eventually whatever remains of the head breaks off from the neck. That is when the elemental stop moving. We did it. The mine is cleared.