Wild Era, Ch 8: Everlasting Flame (Double)

Farther down the mine, he encountered another group of monsters, which was a pack of braggans again. 

They were a bit stronger than the ones above and there were six of them, ranging from Levels 33 to 38. 

He was getting close to the bottom of the mine and these must have fought their way down past other monsters, or perhaps spawned here. 

It was a large group, but it still wasn’t enough to bother using Wildfire on them.

Gaius was scouting ahead and as soon as Kelin caught sight of the lizards, two soul arrows flew from his hands, targeting the two closest to him. 

The lizards hissed ferociously as they spun to face him and began charging, but they lost sight of the larger picture.

The other encounters had been at a closer distance, but this one was far enough that his spells had more range, which put it in his favor.

The spells exploded in the souls of the first two braggans and ignited at the same time as Gaius trapped the middle two in a wave of stone. 

The front two braggans collapsed with smoke trailing from their eyes as the two rear ones passed them at a run. Those two raced up the tunnel, but they found two more soul arrows flying toward them.

One took each braggan between the eyes.

Their legs continued to run as their souls ignited, but their paths became chaotic. They began to weave and their shoulders slammed into each other, but their minds were already too far gone to realize they’d lost their balance. 

The collision sent them tumbling across the ground, where their eyes turned blank. Then they didn’t move any more.

That left only the two that Gaius had trapped, and as he walked forward, Kelin sent a searing bolt of Soulfire through the head of each braggan trapped in the stone.

This time, he targeted the spell better and made it explode inside the skull of each monster.

A few moments after the battle started, all six were dead.

“26 mana and 16 soul energy,” he said aloud.

It was actually slightly less than that, thanks to the efficiency enchantments on his clothing, which added up to about 4.25% mana saved. 

There was a 3.2% general reduction from the mana efficiency enchantment on his tunic and another 2.1% reduction to Fire spells from his belt, but the belt only applied about half of its value to soulfire.

He felt a ring of notifications in his mind as he finished the quick calculation.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained two levels. 

Your Soulbound Elemental has also gained two levels.

You are now Level 24.

You gain 6 Intelligence, 2 Wisdom, and have 10 free points to assign.

Your Ability: Soulfire Bolt has improved by a tier and reached Advanced.

Your Spell: Soul Arrow has improved by a tier and reached Advanced.

The wave of experience sank into him, and this time he felt Gaius gaining levels as well.

From here on out, the two of them would advance in level together.

He tossed the free points into Intelligence and brought it up to 268 as Gaius extracted the cores from the monsters.

The improvement of his soulfire bolt and soul arrow to Advanced was convenient. They were advancing quickly under the force of his conscious control.

Every time he cast the spell, he was working to slightly remodel his meridians to better accommodate the structure and mana rate, as well as to draw the energy more swiftly from his soul pool and to shape it into the necessary form.

It was a process that would normally take much longer and happen naturally over hundreds or thousands of spell casts, but he knew exactly what it needed to be. 

The higher tiers meant that his body was adjusting to the nature of the spells, and that made it easier for him to control them without having to think about it.

More importantly, now he could cast two of them at once instead of having to shape one immediately after the other.

He could also infuse a bit more mana into them, but that wasn’t as significant as the double cast. 

As for the monsters, he was making killing them seem simple, but if there was a brand new Soulfire Warden trying to do the same thing here, they would’ve been only 10 to 20% as effective as he was.

In reality, they would be dead by now. 

He was killing things quickly, but none of the monsters was a joke. They all had something that made them stronger or faster than humans, especially when they were at a higher level.

After the cores were stored away in his backpack, he glanced at the remains of the lizards. He was leaving a lot of materials behind, and that was beginning to bother him, but right now it was the best choice.

Perhaps on the way back up, he would try to gather some skins from them if it didn’t delay him for long. It would be good to have more materials to practice with, and he wanted to improve the quality of his clothes.

He could make some for the kids too.

His Arcane Artisan class was designed to work on smaller objects at first, so some more pieces of quartz, gemstones, disks of metal, or other things would also be effective.

Fortunately, Gaius was well suited to helping him gather those.

He would have to look into making some rings or pendants, or possibly other small things like spell bracelets. 

That would help him to save even more mana once he trained his abilities up, along with whatever other enchantments he was able to put on them.

It had only been about ten minutes since he resurfaced in the mine and if things continued at this pace, he might have to take a break before his mana dropped too much.

His mana pool was up to 268, but he’d used 94, which had dropped to 90 after the efficiency reduction. 

With his passive regeneration, he was just over 70%. 

Every time he added a point to Intelligence, it gave him the mana for that point, so it was helping to keep it up.

His soul energy was better. He’d used 40 points so far, but it was still almost at 80%. 

Without Gaius, both would’ve been a lot lower.

To an average adventurer at Level 24, the rate at which he was going through the monsters and how much mana he had left would probably have been terrifying, but you didn’t get through 5,000 years and become an archmage without learning a thing or two.

He decided it was acceptable for the amount of time he’d had.

If he’d been a bit stronger, he would have simply unleashed wildfire across the entire mine, but the greater uses of the spell would be difficult without his law and domain to support them. 

At least this was giving him a chance to train his abilities.

After that quick assessment, he continued down the tunnel with Gaius once more on the lookout.

They were almost to the bottom of the mine, and the heat and mana density were continuing to increase. 

He’d never been down this far as a worker, but he didn’t think it had been so hot before. 

Theories of the mana vein and the source of the elemental fire energy passed through his mind. It was natural to have the elements and mana mix, but this much was raising new possibilities.

He would see for himself soon enough.

The tunnel continued to wind around as he went lower, but that group of braggans was the last between him and the bottom. 

Before long he reached the lowest level of the mine, but it looked nothing like he expected.

According to what he’d heard, this place should have ended in a solid wall where the miners had stopped their work, but that wasn’t what he saw in front of him.

A gaping hole had been torn through the wall and a stream of elemental fire essence was pouring through like water through a break in a dam. It turned into wisps of flame that flickered around the opening, licking at the melted edges of the stone. 

Then they disappeared as they flowed up the tunnel.

Dense mana poured out of the opening as well, telling him that his guess about a mana vein had been right, but that wasn’t all that had happened.

Light blazed through the gash, making it easy to see what was inside.

It was a cavern of flames.

A small river of magma traced through the cavern on the far wall, heating the interior, and the dense pressure of mana and fire essence twisted through the space, hovering just above it.

Gaius’s senses were better than his and the elemental quickly scanned the area, reporting back on the surroundings to Kelin.

Within that river of mana were the bones and the dissipated core of an ancient fire salamander, something that had once been at the Fourth Evolution.

This cavern must have been its nest.

It must have chosen it because it was safely buried in the earth and touching a mana vein, along with the river of magma to warm it.

True salamanders were ancient beasts, just as wise as humans or more, and similar to elementals. They weren’t monsters.

The dividing line between beast and monster came down to how they were born.

Beasts were natural and born of their parents. 

Monsters were generated from mana, the elements, and chaos.

Salamanders and elementals shared the same strong connection to their origin in pure Fire. Salamanders had a few personal differences, including their love for eating other sources of fire energy, but the most important was that they were still living creatures of flesh and blood, even if their affinity for Fire was perfect.

The volatile fire essence that filled the mine must have come from this nest and the influence of the salamander’s resting place as its core slowly dissolved into the surrounding earth.

It was hard to tell why the salamander had died here, but it had probably been wounded and retreated to its nest, and then passed away. 

That must have been several centuries before the mine was opened, since it would have taken at least that long for its essence to influence the mana nearby.

Kelin had no interest in disturbing the salamander’s resting place, nor was there much of value that he could gain from doing so, but he wasn’t alone in the area.

Inside the cavern, monsters had already spawned from the chaotic mix of mana and fire.

There were a dozen of them, each a dozen feet long and about half a foot wide, with triangular, wedge-shaped heads that were a bit larger. Bright red slitted eyes blazed beneath ruby-scaled ridges, and red and black bands of diamond-shaped scales flowed down their bodies.

They were Flametear Serpents, the most dangerous of the opponents he’d seen in the mine so far. They got their name from the red teardrop-shaped scales that marked their cheeks, right below their eyes.

Each of the serpents was over Level 40, with the highest at 48.

Flametear Serpents were known for a fast and dangerous bite that was highly venomous, and they were rare in the mine. It required an intense Fire element to spawn them, which wasn’t common even here.

When they were discovered, it was usually one or sometimes two at most, and the guards banded together to deal with them.

More important, however, was their current location and the reason they were all gathered here. They were stretched out near the river of magma, basking in the heat and the remains of the fire salamander’s aura, as well as the dense mana that radiated through the cavern.

If they were left that way, it wouldn’t be long before they grew stronger and evolved into something more dangerous.

Monsters could evolve in the same way as humans, and much faster, but they also had a special option called Lesser Evolution that allowed them to evolve on the spot and become a higher-tier version of themselves.

With a highly concentrated source of mana, there was a good chance that these serpents would make the leap within a few days. Then they would be something even meaner.

After that, they would continue to gain levels naturally to 100, evolve again, and so on, with the cycle continuing as long as the mana and elemental essence here could support them.

Right now, they were deep in the cavern and clearly had no intention of coming out, but that wasn’t the only thing here.

The opening into the cavern was clearly not caused by mining picks, but by an explosion, and the remains of what had caused it were still nearby.

The shards of a high-level Fire elemental core, a Wind-aligned spatial crystal, and the fragments of a runic seal that had once been inscribed on silver were scattered nearby, tossed across the area by the explosion.

An artifact had done this, one that looked like it had been cobbled together by a barely proficient enchanter, or perhaps someone who had tried to tie a few different things together to get a reaction.

Gaius kept an eye on the cavern as Kelin picked up the shards. He studied them with a critical eye, tracing the rune as he considered what it must have looked like before.

The fire elemental core was almost destroyed, with barely more than a blackened fragment left, but he could make out what it had been, and there were still traces of spatial energy on the crystal shards.

The core had been around Level 150 when it was intact. It had held enough power to cause quite a bit of damage on its own if the eruption wasn’t contained, but by combining it with the other parts, it had become much more serious.

Someone had deliberately created the explosion that tore open this wall and killed a lot of people. His younger self had been among them.

The Fire core would have ruptured first, releasing chaotic elemental essence, and then the Wind spatial crystal energy would have shattered, mixing ferociously with the essence and causing it to expand outward.

Spatial crystals were rarer than Fire cores, but they were basically condensed dimensional force. They were extremely useful for crafting and for supporting teleportation or other spatial magic, but if you wasted them by just breaking them, they made for a shockwave that rippled through the surrounding space.

This had been a weak one and not worth too much on its own. It had probably been found in a dungeon. Once it was put together with the Fire core, however, it had achieved a more complex purpose.

The last piece of the device was the rune plate, which had probably been to trigger the explosion from a distance. 

Otherwise, it would have been suicidal.

A wave of anger made his knuckles crack as he squeezed the fragments of the device. 

He didn’t like the mining company, but the explosion had killed a number of decent people who were just trying to make a living.

He let out a quick breath as he got control of his temper and then he tucked the device away into his backpack, saving it as evidence. 

Perhaps it would be useful when he got back to town.

He didn’t intend to get in between whatever forces were fighting over this mine, but he didn’t mind throwing a curveball into their midst if he could do it without being noticed either.

He looked at the opening to the salamander’s nest again, studying the wall and how it had opened.

It looked like the breaking into the nest had been an accident.

He doubted the people who planned the explosion or the miners had known it was there. 

The mana density inside would have made it difficult to sense, and the salamander had probably left old protections around its home too, which would have hidden it.

Its presence probably hadn’t affected the explosion too much, but it was what was feeding the continued flow of fire essence and mana.

The miners would have broken into the nest on their own soon, but this device had triggered and done a lot more damage, including setting off the mana crystals in the walls nearby.

The shattered remains of half a dozen were visible embedded in the stone.

Those were what had caused the mana collapse in the mine, as well as the tremors in the earth. They had probably been the original target. 

The result was a confluence of events.

The Flametear Serpents wouldn’t have appeared in the nest before it was broken open, since a salamander would have made sure to ward the area against chaotic mana, just like towns did. 

They’d just taken advantage of the opportunity and were trying to absorb the remains of the beast.

He would put a stop to that.

He’d always had a fondness for the ancient lineages of beasts: the salamanders, drakes, griffins, and more. 

They were strong allies and often formed productive partnerships with humans, and their view of the world was simpler, which was refreshing.

If nothing else, he would clear out this nest and do the old salamander a favor, letting its bones rest in peace.

The experience from the serpents was enough of a reward, and unintentionally so were the remains of this spatial crystal.

He rubbed his fingers over the shards, sensing the remains of the energy inside. 

The ones who had planted this didn’t know it, but they’d helped him out a bit by leaving this here, like a little payment for the trouble they’d caused. 

Breaking it this way had been inefficient, not much better than a hammer hitting a rock, and the leftover shards still held a decent amount of energy.

It would have been useless to most people, but with his high Spatial affinity, it opened up a few possibilities, including how he could get more materials back to town. 

He tucked the shards into his backpack and then he sent a thought to Gaius, telling him the plan.

This time, he only needed Gaius to block off the entrance if the serpents came this far, not that they would make it there if he could manage it.

He had no intention of dueling with them. 

He stepped up to the entrance and kept the serpents in view. 

The cavern wasn’t too large, about two hundred feet across. It was half that to where the monsters were gathered near the magma river. 

One of them caught sight of him and its black tongue out in a dangerous hiss, but it was too interested in the energy where it was to move.

They probably wouldn’t react unless he got closer. 

He could pepper them with spells while Gaius helped to split them up, but it would be less efficient, and he wanted to use a proper Wildfire again, even if it was a small one.

A dozen monsters that far above him in level was going to result in a bit of backlash, but it would be worth it.

He assessed the distance and a spark of soul energy formed in his hand. It swiftly grew into a swirling rainbow sphere with a storm of flickering red and yellow energy surrounding it. 

He picked out the serpent that was the closest to the middle of the pack, and then he threw the Wildfire sphere at it.

The spell shot across the distance in a blur, leaving a trail of rainbow flames in its wake, and struck the serpent in the center of its body. 

As soon as it landed, it exploded. 

A storm of Wildfire roared outward, spreading across that serpent and the others nearby. With the way the serpents were spread out, it could only get to three of them, but it was enough.

The serpent that was struck first hissed as it tried to rear back and lift its head from the flames, but by the time it did, it was much too late.

Ethereal trails of smoke drifted away from its body, slowly spreading across its scales, and then its eyes began to fill with the same rainbow flames. The smoke intensified, rising up from its head, and then a storm of it poured out of its open mouth.

Its body was frozen in place, a shell for the flames inside.

The two serpents nearby had caught on fire now as well and smoke was beginning to pour from them, but the Wildfire didn’t stop there.

Kelin felt the burn on his own soul beginning, but ignored it as he gestured, commanding the flames to spread further.

Sparks of red and yellow ignited inside the smoke, like embers flaring in the heart of a bonfire, and flashed outward, heading for the other serpents in a widening storm.

The flames seemed alive. They sought out their targets in a direct line, flowing straight toward them.

The serpents hissed in anger and tried to strike at the flames as they approached. 

They were Fire-aligned monsters and resistant to their element, but they didn’t understand what was happening, nor that Wildfire wasn’t normal flames.

The corpses of the first three serpents collapsed to the ground as their souls turned into fuel for the spell and three new eruptions of Wildfire exploded outward, each of them matching the eruption of the original spell.

They tripled the size of the storm.

Half of the remaining serpents were caught up in it, but the flames were more intense now and burned faster.

Their corpses collapsed on the ground, giving rise to another series of explosions that sent Wildfire ripping across the nest again.

By that point, the storm was so large that even though the remaining serpents turned to escape, it swept over them in an instant, turning into an ever-expanding ring of soul flames.

At that moment, as the flames caught on the last serpents, Kelin took control of the spell, forcing it down instead of allowing it to erupt in a new series of explosions. 

Even as the remaining serpents collapsed in death, he felt the backlash sear across his soul.

Wildfire flames erupted around him, searing outward from his skin, and he fought them back, pushing them to calm down and dissipate. 

The wards he’d woven onto his soul flared brightly, absorbing the flames as they burned across it, but some of the wildfire still seared him at the edges as it tried to break through.

The flames appeared in reality as well, wrapping him in a cloak of wildfire, and he had to draw on the strength of his wards to keep it from burning his skin.

His clothing charred at the edges and beads of sweat rolled down his face and evaporated into nothing in an instant.

At that moment, a stabilizing force of Earth energy flowed through his soul from Gaius, buffering the worst of the flames.

It was like a wall blocking their advance and it gave him a moment he needed. He let out a huff of air as he finally managed to grab control of the flames.

Wildfire flared and struggled, but slowly it came under his command, and as soon as it did, he swiftly weaved it through the wards on his soul, using it to erect another layer of defenses.

His soul flared up like an inferno, filling his mind’s eye with wildfire light.

Then it was calm.

Kelin let out a gasp of breath as he wavered in place and he braced a hand on the wall to keep himself upright. A mix of satisfaction and resignation warred in his mind.

It had only been twelve Level 40ish monsters, but the backlash was almost more than he could handle in his current state.

If there had been a few more serpents, he would have had a much worse time. 

His soul would recover, but it would feel seared for a couple of days. If Gaius hadn’t stepped in, it would’ve been longer.

He really needed to get his Law back. 

He still understood the Law of Wildfire, which was why he could use the spell at all, but he didn’t have the power to call on its true form. That wouldn’t happen until he got back to the Fifth Evolution.

Level 500.

Despite that, a smile creased his lips. It was good to see Wildfire again, even a tiny one.

His Law had helped him reduce the backlash of using Wildfire, but the defenses woven into his soul to mitigate the flames were also key.

As was the bond with Gaius.

He had a long way to go, but he’d taken another layer just now.

He looked down at his clothes and saw that even with their Lesser Fire Resistance, the wildfire had gotten to them and they were looking a bit dark at the edges, with streaks where the flames had licked at them.

It had been a long time since he’d had to worry about a physical manifestation of Wildfire. It was one more thing to keep track of.

Fortunately, it didn’t matter that much. The flame marks blended in with the overall design, making him look like a slightly crazy fire mage.

A series of notifications rang in his mind, alerting him to the results of the battle. 

After checking that nothing else remained in the cavern, he settled down outside the entrance to meditate and go through them.

He’d used 50 mana and 50 soul energy to ignite the original Wildfire, but each expansion of it had only cost him 3 mana. The rest of the energy had come from the serpents.

Wildfire grew from consuming the souls of the slain, like fire did from dry kindling. It was one reason his enemies had been so terrified of him. 

Little could stop it short of a massive soul ward, like erecting a bulwark of earth in front of an inferno.

He was down to about half of his mana and soul energy both, but he wouldn’t be using Wildfire again for a little while unless he had to. It could wait until his soul was back to normal. 

That test had shown him what he needed to know. 

The voice of the Path rang in his mind, alerting him to the experience from the battle.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained 4 levels.

Your Soulbound Elemental has also gained 4 levels.

You are now Level 28.

He waved away the notifications about attribute gains, but this time he split the free points, placing 10 into Intelligence and 10 into Aura, which brought them to 290 and 160 respectively.

There were no ability improvements from the battle, but he didn’t expect any, so he closed his eyes and meditated for a little while.

Four levels was decent from that, especially after splitting it with Gaius, so he had no complaints. Levels took longer the higher you got, but hunting monsters almost twice his level sped it up. He’d take it while he could get it.

Less than an hour later, his mana and soul energy were both full again, but he had no intention of entering the salamander’s nest yet. Even for him, the intensity of the mana and heat in there was unpleasant, so he would make his trip inside brief.

Instead, he stretched for a moment before he rummaged in his backpack and pulled out the shards of the spatial crystal.

There were five of them, each about two inches long and half an inch wide. Together, they probably had about half of the original crystal’s energy. 

He held them in his hand as he focused on his Spatial affinity, and then he began to slowly draw energy from the crystals, weaving it in with his mana. They bucked against his hand, ready to erupt, but the spell form he was using was subtle and they calmed down again after a moment.

Wind wasn’t his preferred element, but it was tightly bound with the spatial energy, so he carefully separated it out, releasing it as a breeze that fluttered around him, blowing his hair and clothes in every direction.

Once the spatial energy was purified, he separated it into a thin strand and began channeling it into a space that was separate from but connected to his soul. As it entered that area, he began weaving it into a cube, using the spatial thread like building material.

He started small, focusing on the structure of the cube itself, and before long he had a small and perfect cube about the size of his hand.

He tested it for a moment, making sure it was stable, and then he continued feeding spatial energy from the crystals into it, slowly expanding it. Bit by bit, the walls began to lengthen and the cube grew larger.

One shard and then another crumbled to dust in his hand, and then dissipated into the air, completely disappearing. Unlike the crude blast that had broken the crystal, he was expertly using all of the energy. 

By the time the fifth one was gone, the spatial cube was about three feet wide on every side and at that point he was forced to stop.

It wasn’t visible anywhere around him, but he could feel it connected to his soul, existing side-by-side with him in a separate dimension.

He stood up and brushed himself. Then he checked the structure a final time to make sure it was perfect, but it looked fine.

He picked up his backpack, twisted his hand slightly, and the backpack disappeared inside. He could feel it resting there. 

It cost him a couple of points of mana, but it wasn’t much.

It would be just as easy to retrieve the backpack and anything that was inside it.

“There we go,” he said, feeling satisfied. “That’s more like a proper mage.”

The spatial pocket wasn’t very large yet, but it was what he had. 

His spatial capacity in his past life had been nearly unlimited, but he wouldn’t have easy access to the necessary energy to expand the pocket until Fourth Evolution. Until then, he’d have to find some more spatial crystals. 

Either that or a storage device that did something similar. They were fairly common in cities and among adventurers.

But at least now he was able to carry some things around without lugging it on his back.

His mood was optimistic as he stood up, and then a mana shield with a touch of Fire and Earth energy in it sprang up around him as he walked into the salamander’s nest, deflecting the intense heat.

It was a drain on his mana, which was why he’d meditated first, but he wouldn’t be in here for too long.

He headed down to the magma river and Gaius joined him as they swiftly stripped the Flametear Serpents of their cores and useful material, including their skins and venom sacks. He worked preservation spells on the skins and then everything went into his storage.

Then he turned his attention to the stream of magma, where he could sense the salamander’s bones.

It was a bright and glowing presence in his mind’s eye at this range, and the aura of the beast’s corpse created an intense pressure.

Gaius was capable of briefly passing through the magma, but it wasn’t something he would like, so Kelin didn’t ask it of him. 

He studied the area as he debated what to do. He knew salamanders desired to return to the source of all flame in death. They saw it as their origin, the fire from which they were born, and so it was only natural to return to it at the end of their life.

That was why this one was in the magma, the hottest place inside its nest.

The magma was moving slowly, flowing around the skeleton like an embrace, but unfortunately he couldn’t leave it here.

Now that the beast’s wards on this nest were broken, it was only a matter of time before more monsters like the serpents arrived and devoured its essence.

All he could really do was help it to dissipate.

Ideally, he would have returned it to the elemental Plane of Fire or the heart of a star, the truest sources of flame in the galaxy, but he wasn’t able to reach those right now. 

He bowed to the skeleton, silently asking for its tolerance. 

Then he wove a Fire manipulation spell and let it merge with his awareness. A projection of his hand appeared that was about ten feet across, and he reached into the magma with it, passing through the molten stone with an ethereal presence.

Within an instant, he felt the skeleton of the salamander. Its bones were still blazingly hot even after all this time. Its aura was being preserved by the heat of the magma.

It would have been a travesty to lift the skeleton out of the flames, so instead he began to carve runes for destruction onto the bones, using the strongest ones he was able to handle at his current level.

His artisan class gave him some assistance with it, making it a little swifter than it would have been otherwise, but his mana ran out before he was halfway done.

He had to retreat to the entrance and meditate for over an hour before he went back to work on it again.

It took two more cycles before he finished carving the final rune and linked them into a chain along the entire skeleton. 

It was a simple series of linked destruction runes, all based on Fire, which were designed to draw energy from the material they were connected to and to convert it to a focused inferno, one that would hopefully be contained by the magma.

He stepped back from the edge of the lava and erected an elemental ward around himself, as well as a mana shield, and asked Gaius to stand by as necessary.

Then he triggered the spell.

A pillar of fire shot upward from the magma, so hot that it burned bright with a white flame at the tip. It was twenty feet tall and nearly touched the roof of the nest, but it was thin, only a few inches across.

It looked like a blade connecting heaven and earth, an impression that was only reinforced as it began to move slowly along the salamander’s skeleton, following the path of the runes. 

It was so powerful that the magma inside the beam was incinerated, turning to pale smoke that drifted away.

Compared to the size of the skeleton, it wasn’t large, but it slowly traced out the entire pattern of the bones, moving along from head to shoulder, along a leg and back again, down the other front leg, down along the spine to the ribs, and then onward, bone by bone.

Fortunately, his spell work was solid and the runes didn’t explode. 

The spell continued, consuming the bones line by line, leaving only a faint ash behind that mixed into the magma. In time, it would flow away into the earth.

Eventually, the bar of fire reached the tip of the tail, where it paused for a moment. Then it flared brightly before it suddenly snapped out of existence, leaving the cavern feeling dark.

Kelin blinked the afterimages out of his eyes as he tested the air around him, and then he let out a breath and dropped the shields he’d been holding.

The Fire energy in the cavern was already diminishing now that the salamander’s bones were gone. The spell had consumed all of the energy that was providing it.

“Rest well,” he said, nodding at the last flicker of flames on top of the magma.

As he did, a notification from the Path sprang into his mind.

Congratulations, Lord of Wildfire.

You have gained a level.

Your Soulbound Elemental has also gained a level.

You are now Level 29.

You have shown dedication with your crafting efforts.

Continue on your Path to reach greater heights.

It made him chuckle for a moment.

Apparently, the Path had decided carving all of those runes was related to his artisan class, so it had given him experience for it.

It was worth two levels really, but Gaius had gotten one.

He added the free points to Intelligence, taking it to 298 after the level increase.

Then he turned to go, heading back for the opening to the cavern.

The mine might lose its Fire affinity now, but it was for the best. It would still have the mana density that would continue to create mana crystals. 

Once the miners found this place, they’d probably have questions, but that wasn’t a concern of his.

When he was halfway to the entrance, a deep rumble came from the magma behind him,  followed by a sense of shifting pressure from far below the river.

He swiftly tossed a new ward behind him as he spun around with worry etched on his features. 

He’d been concerned that the magma would react to the spell, but so far it had been quiet.

There was a deep chasm beneath that river, one filled with far more magma than was visible on the surface. The skeleton had actually been sitting on a ledge just above it, almost blocking the lower opening.

If that deeper pool erupted now, it would flood the entire nest and possibly part of the mine. 

He would have to rely on Gaius to get him out.

All that happened however was a large bubble of magma rising to the surface and popping, sending splashes of molten rock in every direction.

Kelin wiped the sweat from his head, but as he went to turn around, he noticed a flash of something resting on top of the magma.

A flash of curiosity went through his mind as he saw it and, with some hesitation, he went back to see what it was.

Floating on top of the river was a golden ring, one that roughly matched the size of the salamander’s claw. It was as big as a bracelet for Kelin, but to the ancient beast, it had probably been a comfortable size.

A bright red ruby was mounted on the ring, its core glowing brightly with a heat that felt like elemental fire.

Kelin lifted it off the magma with a simple Wind manipulation spell and called it to his hand. Then he analyzed it.

Ring of Everlasting Flame.

Soulbound Artifact.

Owner: None.

Grade: Rare (Superb).

Effect: Cloak of Everlasting Flame. 

[Creates an elemental field around the wearer that supports the strength of Fire magic by 25%. It can be made visible or left invisible as desired.]

Effect: Blessed Climate.

[Maintains an adjustable climate around the wearer, heating or cooling them as needed to stay within their comfort zone.]

Effect: Self-Repairing.

Durability: Extreme.

[This bracelet was once worn by Kalas’ekan’risatrith, a Fire Salamander of the Risatrith lineage. It was crafted for him by a trusted human ally who thought his complaints about cold weather were amusing and given as a gift in his 618th year. It has lain beneath this river of magma with his bones for almost a millennium. Power for the bracelet is drawn from the Elemental Plane of Fire.]

The Path spoke then in Kelin’s mind.

Take it as a reward for your actions, Lord of Wildfire. Kalas’ekan’risatrith will rest more easily knowing his bones have returned to the eternal flame. He was once a great warrior of this world.

With that, the voice of the Path disappeared, and the ring was left on Kelin’s hand.

Kelin stared at the ring and then at the river of magma where the salamander had been.

It was rare for the Path to grant direct rewards for actions, since it didn’t simply teleport things across the galaxy on a whim.

This ring had been here, unknown and about to be forgotten, and the Path had decided to give it to him. 

He tried to reach out and get the Path’s attention, his hopes flaring that it would work this time, but the sense of its presence was already gone.

“What are you doing that’s taking up so much of your attention?” he asked with a muttered complaint, but he didn’t refuse the reward.

It had probably been this ring as much as the magma that had kept the salamander’s bones hot for so long.

A flick of sharp Earth essence opened his thumb and he let a drop of blood fall onto the ring.

He felt the soul connection snap into place, marking the ring as his, and he slid it onto the first finger of his left hand. It quickly resized itself until it rested there comfortably.

As soon as it was on, the heat of the cavern disappeared, leaving him feeling comfortable, something which made him let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

He looked down at the ring and then toward where the salamander’s bones had been.

“Thank you,” he said simply. “I’ll use it well.”

He didn’t look back as he headed out of the cavern and back up the mining tunnel. 

Whatever was left of the salamander’s nest, it wasn’t for him to disturb.