“Honestly, we could register them as adventurers and form a proper party,” said Letia.
“Yep.”
“We could probably slay a dragon together someday.”
“And then they can forge us a Dragon Buster and a set of Dragon Scale Mail with the materials.”
“No, you need a Dragon Buster to slay a dragon in the first place, Mark.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let’s get moving,” Letia said.
The two of them nodded in agreement before finally stepping in to break up our argument.
Once the bickering was over, we mounted up again and started down the highway. Mark led the way with Lynn behind him, then I rode next, with Letia in the rear. As we moved along, something yellow on Lynn’s shoulder caught my eye.
It was hard to describe, but, well…it looked like a tiny old man in a pointy yellow hat. He had a long white beard, and he was whispering something into Lynn’s ear.
“Hey, Lynn? Who’s that little guy with the yellow hat?” I asked.
“Oh, you can see him? He’s an earth fairy.”
“Huh?” The other two couldn’t see anything. Mark and Letia glanced around in confusion.
“Hang on. Apparently, there’s a cave up ahead with something worthwhile.” Lynn pointed off the road, deeper into the forest. We all stopped our mounts and gathered around.
“I’d like to make a quick stop. Is that okay?” Lynn sounded like she was going whether we agreed or not. Her eyes were practically shining with greed.
“Fine. This is a mission for gathering ingredients, after all,” Mark said with a shrug. “We don’t get to complain where you go; we just protect you.”
“True,” Letia agreed.
The two of them started whispering to each other.
“Hey, Letia.”
“What?”
“Do you think fairies really exist?”
“I dunno, but if these two weirdos say they do, then they probably do.”
“Fair enough,” Mark said.
Letia seemed to completely accept it, while Mark looked like had finally realized what he’d gotten himself into, surrounding himself with these strange girls.
Once we entered the woods, Mark and Letia dismounted and led their horses on foot. Mark took the lead, using his halberd to hack through the brush and clear a path. Lynn and I stayed on our divine beasts as we moved forward.
A forest like this had its share of monsters. We encountered evil boars and the larger devil boars every now and then, but it never became a real fight. These three in a single group was total overkill. I’d freeze them in place with Ice magic and the frontliners would finish them off in seconds, with Lynn usually flattening their skulls.
Eventually, the trees parted to reveal a cavern entirely sheathed in ice. Massive icicles hung in layers from the ceiling.
The little yellow fairy on Lynn’s shoulder nodded solemnly.
“Yeah, this is the place,” Lynn said.
There were almost certainly monsters inside. Mark pulled a magical lantern from his magic bag and took the lead, carefully going ahead while illuminating our surroundings. If it wasn’t so dangerous, I probably would’ve found the place beautiful. The light from the lantern bounced through the frozen cavern, refracting off the icicles and glossy walls and scattering patterns across the floor.
Luckily, the tunnel only continued forward, with no side passages to distract us.
Unfortunately, right at the far end was a massive ice golem.
Golems were usually huge humanoid monsters made of earth, stone, or other minerals. Somewhere inside their bodies was a core with a mana stone that had to be destroyed or they’d keep regenerating. This one, though, was a variant made entirely of ice.
Um, does anyone here know fire magic?
On top of that, the floor was slick with frost. Even getting enough footing to attack would be tough.
“Didn’t you say something worthwhile was in here, Lynn?” Mark asked.
We were all frozen and unable to move. The golem hadn’t moved yet, probably because we were still too far away.
Mark looked around. “Daisy, is there any chance you can use fire magic?”
“Sorry, I can’t.”
“Lynn, you’re a Blacksmith. Can you—”
“Two totally different things,” Lynn said.
Mark seemed determined to find some way. He knew I wasn’t combat material, but he still checked every possibility.
In truth, fire was the only element I’d never been able to learn. I’d always thought that was fine, though, because fire ruined materials and couldn’t be used safely in forests anyway, so I had never needed to know it. I never imagined that it would come back and bite me like this.
It doesn’t have to be fire, right? Just something that can melt the ice. But what?
“We’re switching to spiked boots,” Mark said. “Will you two be able to move?”
Letia and Mark had pulled out a special kind of boot just for this sort of terrain.
“We have claws,” Leon said calmly. “If Daisy and Lynn ride us, we won’t have any trouble moving.”
Mark nodded after he changed his footwear. “We can still turn back. This thing is trouble. Sure you still wanna keep going?” He looked to us for confirmation.
The earth fairy on Lynn’s shoulder pointed straight at the ice golem and nodded firmly.
“There’s something there, and I’m gonna take it,” Lynn said without hesitation. The yellow little fairy looked satisfied and faded into the air.
“If that thing really is a golem, even if it’s some variant, we need to crush the core inside it. Find it and smash it. Got it?” Mark looked at us to make sure we understood.
We all nodded silently.
“Stone Wedge!” I gathered all my mana, focused it, and commanded the earth beneath the ice golem’s feet to move. Thick wedges of rock burst up through the frozen floor, spearing the golem’s body and shattering it into jagged pieces.
Wait, that’s it? I thought it would be tougher than that.