Chapter 177: Phoenix Lotus
Bob carefully dug through the bags that the Giant was carrying, until he came out with a large red flower. It was as big as a sunflower, larger than his head, and it radiated a sense of warmth and magic.
Doug looked at the flower with interest. "That is a Phoenix Lotus, a fire Elemental resource. But it doesn't grow anywhere on this continent, so they must have arrived with it. Drinking a steeped infusion of it is supposed to be outstanding for Fire Mages and Berserkers with Fire Elemental attacks.
While our two aren't Fire Mages, they do have some talents with fire."
Doug paused as Hawk landed next to the flower and began to stare at it with a bit of drool leaking from his beak.
"And it looks like Hawk might like some of it as well.
How about I prepare it, and then we will try it over dinner? Even if the tea isn't enough for Hawk, he can always eat the remaining flower after I finish brewing. The process extracts most of the mana from it, but there will still be nutrients left in the petals, which are not edible by humans and therefore not included in the tea." He explained.
[You heard the man, you can have it after dinner.] Karl informed the bird, which was contemplating snatching the flower and flying away with it.
Bob passed the flower to Doug, who tucked it away in his backpack, and finished checking the Giant's gear.
They had all taken to trying on any magical equipment, just in case it adapted itself to the wearer, but most of what the monsters had worn was already damaged beyond repair by the time that they died, and the team didn't include an armourer, so they just buried it with the bodies.
"There is one more piece under the body. We've got a magical sword this time, but that's going to be a two-handed blade for someone." The warrior explained, then passed the weapon to the mages for examination.
Donni struggled to lift the blade, and ended up leaning it against a tree to read the inscriptions. Normally, a human would never use a weapon like this, as it was too unwieldy and weighed five times what a normal two-handed blade would. But if it was powerfully magic, they could get a reward for bringing it back.
"According to this, it is a blade of Ease. Using it makes your skills easier to activate." She explained, after reading the runes twice and verifying them against her notebook.
Doug chuckled as he heard the description. "That's perfectly suited for your needs, in a format that you could never possibly use."
The cleric was right. She specialized in barriers, and if they took even a few percent less mana to maintain, it would directly improve her combat effectiveness by a noticeable amount, and increase the survivability of the whole group.
The problem was that it weighed close to twenty-five kilos to her less than fifty. Even just carrying it all day would be a burden.
Bob picked the blade up and gave it a twirl. "It's not bad with my strength. It's not really my style, since I'm on the front lines blocking, but it might be alright with some practice."
He twirled the blade and struck the ground, activating a skill that sent a shockwave travelling away from him, leaving a deep furrow in the dirt.
"I would say that the reduction is close to thirty percent." He offered.
The mages looked in longing at the blade. Thirty percent was huge.
"You might have to drop in at the Academy and ask the Berserkers for some combat lessons." Karl laughed as Bob gave the blade an approving look.
"I already trained on the two-handed blade quite a lot, actually. It's just not suitable in this group, as we don't have anyone else to take point except Thor."
The Lightning Cerro snorted and stomped on the ground, then tossed his head to the side as if throwing enemies. He was quite certain that his armour was up to the task of dealing with enemies as the tank.
Having more damage at the front, and the ability to use skills with higher output without taking the stamina penalty for using skills near your limit, would be much more valuable than a second blocker.
"Alright. Thor can take point, just keep the barrier up on him, since he can't speak to call for relief." Bob reluctantly agreed when he saw how serious the scaled beast was.
Doug looked at Thor for a moment. "Don't you think he's getting bigger? I swear he was shorter than I was when we arrived, and now his back is higher than my head."
"I think you're right. He's almost fully grown now. That's much faster than I had expected, but the exercise has been good for him." Karl agreed.
Rae had also grown, though not as noticeably. She was at her full size now, roughly the size of a subcompact car when standing, though with a smaller body and long legs forming the rest of her silhouette. Hawk was just the same as he had been, but he was already adult sized and not expected to grow any larger.
"I think that we might have progressed further than we expected. With everyone growing, it's difficult to tell, but if we could fight against something that we know was on the borderline of Awakened and Ascended, we could get a better reference."
They hadn't seen anything like that in days. Everything was somewhere in the Ascended Rank, with sporadic Commander Rank leaders, which they were definitely getting better at killing.
"Alright, let's scout the rest of the zone and see what else we have for the day. I have a good feeling about this one. I'm thinking that we should be back in time for lunch." Doug cheered as Thor took his place at the front of the group.
Hawk led them toward a group of Ogres as the radio announced that there was a reinforcement mission arriving later that day, and for teams to keep their radios on, so they could lead the relief groups in.
Only a few would be getting replaced today, starting with those who had been in the field longest, but it was a good sign that they wouldn't be out here too much longer. Likely not more than another week and they would be on their way back home with bags full of loot and a number of new magical items.
Bob hefted the sword over his shoulder and prepared to charge as Thor found the Ogres, but the five-metre tall beasts seemed utterly uninterested in fighting once they saw that there were five people plus the Cerro.
Unfortunately for them, Bob did want to fight, and Rae wasn't about to let them run away.
The enormous sword whistled through the air as Bob activated [Slash] on a downward strike.
The arc of light raced away from him, slicing the Ogre in half in a single strike.
Thor charged and flipped the other in the air, where Hawk and Karl hit it from opposite sides with [Shred], killing it before it reached the ground.
"I think it can be safely said that we have Commander Rank combat power now. If Ascended Rank Ogres are falling in a single strike, not many would argue with our capabilities." Doug chuckled as he surveyed the aftermath of the brief battle.
[There is nothing else nearby. Everything ran away.] Hawk informed Karl a few seconds later, after checking for their next target.
"Hawk says there is nothing left to fight. We scared it all away. We might as well head back for an early lunch and see if anything comes back." Karl explained.
"Nice, early day it is." Doug chuckled, pointing his staff back toward the fort.
Once they were back and Doug had started on cooking lunch, Karl settled in to meditate. The three spaces were doing much better now, and they were providing him with a lot more energy than they had a week ago. But they felt like they might be limiting the beasts inside.
The three were growing so fast, and he was slacking so much on his meditation that the spaces weren't keeping up.
So, that was how Karl spent the rest of his morning, doing his best to improve the living conditions for his partners, and increase the energy density in the spaces, now that they were capped out in size.
A few hours wasn't going to do much, but if he spent a few afternoons and nights at it, he might make some progress.
The mages only meditated for a few hours an afternoon, and that had been Karl's schedule as well, but it was becoming obvious that it wasn't enough.