“You should have this.”

  The words broke Tyla’s concentration and she looked away from the body of the Frostwyrm. The corpse was now warming, which seemed an odd thing to say about a corpse. It was odd, too, to think of this room as warm. It wasn’t, but the Frostwyrm had been colder still. Cold enough for Tyla to feel it past the potion they had all taken to ward off the chill of these levels.

  Looking at the source of the words, Tyla saw that Kelsey was offering her a blue and silver cloak. Tyla reached out to grasp it. Just before she did, her fingers felt a brief chill, which evaporated as soon as she grasped the fabric. Magic, of course. The cloak must be the reward for clearing this floor.

  “Why me?” Tyla asked. She looked closely at the cloak with her Sense Magic. She didn’t have the Trait that let her identify enchantments, but she could tell what types of magic it held. Control, Fire and Water.

  “Anton identified it as having a Frozen Step effect,” Kelsey said. “We tested it and it stops you slipping on ice.”

  “That is useful…” Tyla said. She glanced at Aris, the person in the party most prone to slipping.

  “Oh, Aris can use it,” Kelsey agreed. “But you can learn from it. I know you’re having trouble with a spell to do the same thing.”

  “Ah, I see,” Tyla agreed. Trouble was one way to say it. Another was that she hadn’t the faintest clue about how to go about it. Ice was a little tricky when it came to magic. It was frozen water, so Water mana applied to it, but it was also cold, which meant Fire mana applied. Knowing which applied when was tricky, especially when she was operating almost entirely on instinct.

  Not wanting to delay the revelation, she put the cloak on and took a step. The floor of the boss chamber was mostly flat, aside from the parts that had been torn up by the Frostwyrm, but it was still ice, still slippery.

  Her step was firmly planted, though, as was the next. It was as if she was walking on rock. Tyla watched what it was doing. Control and Fire mana suffused her entire body—that must explain the warmth she was feeling. The cloak itself was also imbued with water, which must be a third, weaker, magical effect. Tyla suspected that it was the same as the one on her bow, which protected it from damp.

  On her feet, though, was Water mana. Tyla took another step. It was… freezing the ice underfoot? Not freezing, exactly, since no heat was involved. The magic was simply turning water into ice.

  Tyla hadn’t known that Control could change water into ice. She had thought that would come under Change—and she didn’t have any ability with Change. But a bigger question was…

  “What water?” she said aloud.

  “Hmm?” Kelsey asked.

  “It’s turning water into ice, but what water?” Tyla asked. “Numina,” she added belatedly, remembering her manners. Kelsey didn’t seem to mind, or even notice, but she needed to show her respect for the being that had saved her.

  “Oh, is that what’s happening?” Kelsey cocked her head to the side, thinking. “Ice isn’t something I’ve worked with much, but I remember that it’s always covered by a thin layer of semi-water.”

  “Semi… water?” Tyla repeated.

  “It’s sort of in-between,” Kelsey explained. “That’s why ice is slippery and the pressure and heat of your foot melts a little more and makes it more slippery!”

  “So by freezing that thin layer…” Tyla mused.

  “You solve your slipping problem!”

  “Then I just have to… can you give me some water?”

  The Numina handed Tyla a cup of water without comment. She had been carrying all their non-essential supplies for this delve, so it wasn’t the first time a request like that had been made. Tyla looked at the water. It was cold enough that it would soon freeze on its own, but she could…

  With a flex of Control Water magic, she changed its state. With another, she changed it back again.

  That’s not enough, she thought. I need to wrap it around the subject’s feet, include a duration…

  “May I test it on you, Numina?” she asked.

  “The name’s Kelsey, but sure,” the Numina said and held out her hand. Magic could be done at range, but it was easier if you were touching the target. Tyla drew on the mana of the Core she carried and wove it how she thought she needed to. The weave snapped into place, and Kelsey tried a few exploratory steps.

  “It works!” she said with a grin. “How long will it last?”

  “I’m not sure,” Tyla admitted. “A while… perhaps six hours?”

  “We’ll time it, get some numbers for you,” Kelsey promised. She called over to the rest of the team. “Hey, we’ve got something for the slip and slide!”

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  “A spell for Aris?” Lord Anton asked. He was indeed wise if he could get that from the strange phrase Kelsey had used. “That’s great! The next floor was going to be difficult without it.”

  “It’s not more chasm bridges, is it?” Zapahar asked. “I don’t, I don’t want to go over any more rickety ice deathtraps.”

  “Well…” Lord Anton temporised. “We don’t have to cross any ice chasms.”

  They stared into the howling void. An icy wind tore past their faces. It was probably not strong enough to rip them off their feet and pull them into the darkness. Probably.

  Kelsey shone her torch directly ahead of them. It illuminated some mist and small particles of ice, driven past them by the wind, but it couldn’t reach the wall on the other side.

  “This is crazy! Madness!” Zaphar shouted.

  “This is actually one of the more popular floors!” Lord Anton yelled back. “We have to go down the cliff! We get out at the bottom!”

  Kelsey braved the winds and stuck her head out of the tunnel.

  “There’s a path!” she reported loudly. “Looks like a deathtrap!”

  She gestured for them to go back down the tunnel. About ten yards back, it became possible to hear each other without shouting.

  “What’s the plan?” she asked Lord Anton.

  “About the same as before,” Anton said, pulling out his rope. “The difference is we tie ourselves together with the rope. We’ll all be fighting and we won’t be able to hold on to it.”

  “I can’t—I can’t dodge when I’m tied to a rope.”

  “I’m surprised you think you can dodge when you’re clinging to an ice ledge,” Kelsey said. “Surprised and impressed!”

  Zaphar glared at her. “Why? Why is it one of the most popular floors?”

  “It’s lucrative,” Anton explained. “Most of the cliff face is covered in frost-silk. That’s the stuff Tyla’s new cloak is made of, and it’s pretty popular for high-tier nobles’ clothing.”

  Zaphar’s eyes narrowed. “What makes frost-silk?”

  Anton shrugged. “Ice-spiders. Frostbite Crawlers, Shardfang Weavers, Chillfang Broodguards… some others. They’re all over the cliff face.”

  “I bet they’re pretty big if they’re Tier Three!” Kelsey said enthusiastically.

  “Dog-sized or bigger,” Anton agreed.

  “Poisonous?” Kelsey asked.

  “Frostbite. Ices up your blood,” Anton said. “Our antivenom potions will work on it, but get one down as soon as possible because the more time it has to work, the worse the damage. Too long and you’ll need to take a potion.”

  Zaphar groaned. “Why is this my life?” he asked rhetorically. Anton clapped him on the shoulder.

  “Cheer up!” he said. “You’re finally going up against monsters of a higher level than you. You’ll finally be getting decent experience!”

  The experience was far greater than before. That just meant the challenge was more severe. They had reached the point where it would be almost impossible to continue without magical aid. Potions negated the cold, her spell glued them to the wall, reducing the difficulty of the climb and rendering the howling wind impotent.

  There were still dangers. Collapsing ice ledges, either underfoot or above them. Sticky threads of frost-silk, indistinguishable from ice until you became entangled in them. And the monsters, of course.

  This was the first level where Lord Anton fought as many monsters as they did. Not because they were finally providing him with “decent experience”, but because the spiders attacked from every direction. From the front, behind, above or below, it made no difference to the gelid arachnids.

  The crack of Lady Aris’s weapon marked the demise of another spider. Tyla heard the corpse tumble down behind her, along with some ice fragments. She didn’t look, not least because the flash of the gun would spoil her night vision. She kept an alert vigil on the cliff face below them.

  A spider crawled into her line of sight. White-furred, it was almost invisible against the ice. Almost.

  Her arrow slammed into it with barely a thought. It wasn’t enough though. It twitched, and Tyla thought it would have screamed if it had a voice, but it didn’t even lose its grip on the frozen wall. Another arrow sent it to the bottom.

  Ten arrows left, Tyla counted, and took another step. When she got to four, she’d ask for another load from Kelsey, if the Numina had not already noticed.

  Two of them this time—no, three—“Ware!” she called, even as she put an arrow in the lead spider. One of them lit up, brilliantly glittering as Kelsey shone her torch down. That spider exploded from one of Lady Aris’s bullets. The light flew away and Aris’s gun sounded again as spiders from above tried to take advantage. Tyla put an arrow in the remaining uninjured spider, and another in the first one.

  Six arrows left, Tyla counted. She shot another spider and took another step.

  “Order up!” Kelsey shouted. “Twenty arrows, fresh off the lathe!”

  She always said that. Tyla wasn’t sure how she knew there were twenty arrows but there always were. Tyla’s quiver could hold twenty-five arrows easily—thirty in a pinch—so this was exactly the right number for her. She shot another spider.

  Twenty-four arrows left, she counted, readying a second shot. It died.

  Twenty-three arrows left, she counted. She took another step.

  You have reached Level 4.

  Applying Benefits for Level 1

  Dexterity + 1

  Perception + 2

  Willpower + 1

  Charisma + 1

  Please allocate free Ability point

  “Level!” she called out. It would only distract her for a moment, but that moment could be deadly.

  “I gotcha!” Kelsey called back. The group stopped moving while they waited for her.

  Agility, she chose.

  Please select a new Trait. Available Traits: Cast Standard Charm, Enchant Item, Create Potion

  Tyla thought about it. Kelsey had made her promise to think about what her choice meant for her future. Looked at from a long-term perspective, Cast Standard Charm would only be a small immediate power boost, while Enchant Item and Create Potion were the foundations for two different careers. She could use her magic to make items that would sell, without risking her life in a dungeon. Even if she lost her core, she could still enchant and make potions using monster cores.

  That just wasn’t her, though. She was a hunter, not a shopkeeper. While Dungeon Witch wasn’t either of those, it was a lot closer to hunter. And as a Dungeon Witch, she needed to be in a dungeon.

  Cast Standard Charm, she selected.

  “Ready!” she called out.

  “Get anything good?” Kelsey asked as they started moving forward.

  “I took the best one,” Tyla said, smiling. Another spider showed its head and Tyla put an arrow into it. This time, though, she set the arrowhead aflame while she was aiming. The fire-arrow punched into the spider with disproportionate effect, lodging deep inside. This time, she killed it with one shot.

  “Nice!” Kelsey yelled over the wind. Tyla nodded.

  Twenty-two arrows left, she counted. She took another step.

  “Oh thank all the gods, I can see the bottom!” Zaphar called.

  she counts as violence, but she's allowed!