Chapter 330 – Reaching The Farm
“Burn the forest down?” Mage Levine questioned. “You really are a crazy one.”
“His suggestion is not as crazy as you might think,” Mage Adair shot back. “Between myself and Mage Flores, we can be assured the fire won’t bother us. Not only would burning our way through the forest save us the time and hassle of navigating the forest path, but it will drive away most of the Demonic Beasts we would otherwise have to fight along that path.”
“You’re serious?” Mage Guptill questioned.
“Which would you prefer, watching a fire burn a wide path through the forest for an hour or so, or being subject to ambushes for several hours as we walk through a dark forest?” Mage Flores asked.
“Fine. Burn it down. Burn it all down,” Mage Guptill ranted.
“We won’t need to burn it all down, just a nice wide path,” Mage Adair told her. “And depending on how much mana I use; we might just clear this dungeon in record time.”
“Burning the place down means we won’t be getting much in the way of spoils,” said Mage Forlani.
“Spoils are bonuses, this mission is about clearing the dungeons, so they don’t cause a beast wave. Floyd, let’s get started.”
The Fire mage began walking towards the tree line closest to the clearing on the other side of the forest. Fireballs were already being shot out from his palm, each one landing on the large trees, causing them to burst into flame.
After the front rows of trees were ablaze, Mage Adair cast Fire Strom deeper in the forest to begin igniting the trees he could not reach with Fire Balls. After three Fire Storms, Mage Adair sat down on the ground and began meditating to recover his spent mana.
Mage Flores periodically doused a bit of fire that landed in the clearing with a Water Blast, but mostly he let the fire rage on. Mage Levine and Mage Forlani were both on high alert, watching for any Demonic Beasts fleeing the forest.
This journey into an A Rank dungeon was much different than what Damion had envisioned. He watched the map on his tablet as the Demonic Beasts in the forest fled from the fire. Most were probably just low Rank beasts, so the presence of six strong mages in the clearing discouraged any of them from fleeing in their direction.
“That tree is going to fall,” Mage Flores called out as one of the trees began to lean towards the group.
Reaching out with Telekinesis, Damion pushed the tree the other way. He forced it to fall into the trees behind it, further spreading the fire. Damion then gave a few experimental pushes with Telekinesis on the other trees on the edge of the forest. Only one gave when he pushed, but he toppled that one into the forest as well.
“Nice work,” Mage Flores told Damion when he the two trees helped ignite more of the forest. “Just keep pushing them that way and we’ll be through this forest in no time at all.”
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After a few minutes of rest, Mage Adair got up and cast another series of Fire Storms further into the forest, setting off another set of fires. As more trees burned and became weaker, Damion started periodically testing them with Telekinesis. In less than an hour the group had nearly burned a path completely through the forest.
“This should be enough,” Mage Adair told them. “We don’t want to risk burning the other clearing. I have a feeling there will be some good things in there.”
The team started forward, walking over the charred forest floor. As they moved through the blackened area, Damion cleared their path of fallen trees with Telekinesis. When the group reached the far side of the forest and he moved the last of the burnt debris from their path, the group squeezed between the last few trees to enter the second clearing.
On the other side of the trees, they found that Damion was right to call it a farm. There were numerous rare plants being cultivated. Many of those plants were easily recognizable as key ingredients in healing and mana potions.
“Mage Picard, start collection everything you can. We’ll be in for a fight in a moment.”
“What do you mean?” Damion asked Mage Adair.
“The guardian of this dungeon is not going to like us plundering their garden.”
Damion was about to ask for the Fire mage to be more specific when he felt a strong magic aura wash over him. Compared to what he had felt from the Deep Stone Eel, this was far stronger. Since this was an A Rank dungeon the guardian was no doubt at A Rank, but now Damion was beginning to realize the guardian might be a peak A Rank Demonic Beast.
Mage Adair slowly led the team towards the center of the clearing. Mage Guptill was busy helping Damion collect as many of the rare flora as they could before the fight that was about to breakout ruined everything. Damion was hastily collecting as fast as he could, and he almost missed a tree standing by itself away from the other farm plots.
“What is it?” Mage Guptill asked Damion when he paused.
“Is that a Heavenly Enhancement Fruit… tree?” Damion asked, pointing to the tree.
Mage Guptill froze for a moment as well when she saw it. The tree indeed had Heavenly Wood Enhancement Fruits on it. And quite a few of them at that.
“It is. Quick. Get those first”
Damion wasted no time in rushing over to the tree to start pulling the rare fruits into his personal spatial storage. One of the fruits he quickly hid in the Magic System Inventory. He did not have the Wood affinity, but that did not mean he would not gain it one day and now that he had the Heavenly Wood Enhancement Fruit, he would be able to upgrade the affinity to A Rank as soon as he acquired it.
If he could just find the Heavenly Enhancement Fruit for his Spatial affinity.
There was a total of fourteen fruits on the tree and Damion collected them all. With that many fruits each person that responded to the callout would be able to have one and still have a few left over. Since there were enough to go around, Damion felt a little guilty storing one for himself, but he pushed the feeling aside. There was no guarantee everyone would agree to each take one and with him only being a B Rank mage, the others could easily ignore his opinion if they wanted.
A few seconds after Damion grabbed the last of the Heavenly Enhancement Fruits, the fighting started. Damion and Mage Guptill could not see it, but they heard it. Then the pair saw Mage Adair’s Fire Storm erupt and they knew the fight with the guardian had started.
“Let’s go,” Mage Guptill told Damion.
It was too dangerous for them to be away from the others now. Mage Guptill needed to be close to the action so she could heal anyone that got injured. And Damion needed to be close by as the weakest member of the group, so he did not end up in even more danger.
As they moved towards the fighting, Damion was trying to put his finger on why this dungeon felt so out of place, but oddly familiar. Then he realized why. This was a farm. The goblins he had encountered in the Aerico dungeon had been collecting herbs. The ones in the ice mountain dungeon had been raising young. Even the Iblis in the Unstable Breach had been collecting materials in that Breach. This meant that whatever the guardian of this dungeon was, it was probably one of the other races.